Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2,3, RWTH Aachen University (Institut f r Anglistik), course: Modern American Drama, 9 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: The two plays Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill and A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams can be seen as two of the most successful and respected plays of American Modernism. Besides other similarities, both plays deal, more or less obviously with the consumption of alcohol and - in case of Mary Tyrone in Long Day's Journey into Night - drugs. This paper's matter is to find out what function drinking or the consumption of other drugs have for the characters of the two plays. This question could also be interesting looking at the authors: O'Neill's play has very many parallels to his own life and also Williams admitted that he is to be found in the character of Blanche DuBois to a certain extend.

Presents a collection of critical essays on O'Neill's play, arranged in chronological order of their original publication.

The American classic—as you’ve never experienced it before. This multimedia edition, edited by William Davies King, offers an interactive guide to O’Neill’s masterpiece. -- Hear rare archival recordings of Eugene O’Neill reading key scenes. -- Discover O’Neill’s creative process through the tiny pencil notes in his original manuscripts and outlines. -- Watch actors wrestle with the play in exclusive rehearsal footage. -- Experience clips from a full production of the play. -- Tour Monte Cristo Cottage, the site of the events in Long Day’s Journey Into Night, and Tao House, where the play was written. -- Delve into O’Neill’s world through photographs, letters, and diary entries. And much, much more in this multimedia eBook.

Spark your creativity, hone your writing, and improve your scripts with the self-contained character, scene, and story exercises found in this classic guide. Having spent decades working with dramatists to refine and expand their existing plays and screenplays, Dunne effortlessly blends condensed dramatic theory with specific action steps—over sixty workshop-tested exercises that can be adapted to virtually any individual writing process and dramatic script. Dunne’s in-depth method is both instinctual and intellectual, allowing writers to discover new actions for their characters and new directions for their stories. The exercises can be used by those just starting the writing process and by those who have scripts already in development. With each exercise rooted in real-life issues from Dunne’s workshops, readers of this companion will find the combined experiences of more than fifteen hundred workshops in a single guide. This second edition is fully aligned with a brand-new companion book, Character, Scene, and Story, which offers forty-two additional activities to help writers more fully develop their scripts. The two books include cross-references between related exercises, though each volume can also stand alone. No ordinary guide to plotting, this handbook centers on the principle that character is key. “The character is not something added to the scene or to the story,” writes Dunne. “Rather, the character is the scene. The character is the story.” With this new edition, Dunne’s remarkable creative method will continue to be the go-to source for anyone hoping to take their story to the stage. “Dunne mixes an artist’s imagination and intuition with a teacher’s knowledge of the craft of dramatic writing.” —May-Brit Akerholt, award-winning dramaturg

An “absorbing” biography of the playwright and Nobel laureate that “unflinchingly explores the darkness that dominated O’Neill’s life” (Publishers Weekly). This extraordinary biography fully captures the intimacies of Eugene O’Neill’s tumultuous life and the profound impact of his work on American drama, innovatively highlighting how the stories he told for the stage interweave with his actual life stories as well as the culture and history of his time. Much is new in this extensively researched book: connections between O’Neill’s plays and his political and philosophical worldview; insights into his Irish American upbringing and lifelong torment over losing faith in God; his vital role in African American cultural history; unpublished photographs, including a unique offstage picture of him with his lover Louise Bryant; new evidence of O’Neill’s desire to become a novelist and what this reveals about his unique dramatic voice; and a startling revelation about the release of Long Day’s Journey Into Night in defiance of his explicit instructions. This biography is also the first to discuss O’Neill’s lost play Exorcism (a single copy of which was only recently recovered), a dramatization of his own suicide attempt. Written with both a lively informality and a scholar’s strict accuracy, Eugene O’Neill: A Life in Four Acts is a biography worthy of America’s foremost playwright. “Fast-paced, highly readable . . . building to a devastating last act.” —Irish Times